My Spiritual Journey

      I originally learned of Joel's work in Hollywood, Ca at a bookshop I was visiting in the summer of 1978. It was there that the first copy of the book, The Infinite Way, came into my possession. I understood very little in it, but I was awestruck by this man who used the word God seemingly in every other word he had written. It made my head throb! I couldn't take it, so deep in darkness was I at the time. Surprisingly though I purchased the book but I laid it aside and all but forgot it. In 1980, while very interestedly pursuing the prospect of entering the ministry with the Church of Religious Science at Founders Church near downtown Los Angeles, I casually entered their bookstore to browse since I had some time to kill as the registrar for the ministerial program wasn't in. There I found myself drawn to the book The Infinite Way again. Only this time, I couldn't recall having actually bought the book. However, the message sounded so familiar. More than this, it seemed to speak to me by saying, yes, for you, this is IT.

      In late 1978 or early 1979 - I can't recall exactly when - I had to return to Washington, D.C. for what would turn out to be another year. Then after not being able to find any inward peace in Washington with my family, I was moved by Spirit to return to California to once and for all try to resolve my state of emptiness, unhappiness, and incompleteness. All along I was aware of "something" leading and guiding me, though I "knew" it not.

     It was in 1980 that I stepped foot on the Path, never to turn away again. Though now I see that unbeknownst to me I had been on the Path for centuries and only in 1980, in this particular incarnation, did I become consciously aware of it.

      The Path, the journey, was so excruciatingly slow and unbearably painful. Many of my most humanly cherished possessions and loved ones fell away. My family dissolved: there was no desire to work to look after my needs or those of my family: nothing at all seemed important but to seek God as I understood that concept being unstoppably bellowed by Joel through his taped recorded message, and especially his writings. Oh those writings, how I hugged them to my chest in my darkest of dark hours. But as the weeks turned to months and these to years, the heavy door to the dungeon of human consciousness in me was cracked open just a bit, AND, in a flash some light, a new realm of awareness dawned. I was and have never been quite the same person since that time. As I found the message of the infinite way solely by turning within myself for spiritual guidance, my journey steered me away from the normal group gatherings for classes by the small number of gifted and loving teachers that were active at the time. Instead it pointed me always back to within myself for revelation and direction.

     Over the years I've had the pleasure and privilege of working with some supremely loving and dedicated souls. All of us are not yet ready for the last mile of the way but each is progressing under the watchful gaze of the Maker of everything. AS IT WILLS SO IT WILL BE! And not otherwise, no matter how much we think we want it.